Photographing Paintings

[SusanGOL]

I am an artist. I sculpt (bronzes and stone carvings) and paint.

Getting to my question....what is the best way to photograph original art?

The photos of the paintings either have a big flash glare on the painting, or when I turn the flash off and use indirect light they either turn out washed out looking or too dark.

What can I do to get an accurate photo of my art?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Susan

[idcrewdawg]

Try a diffused flash.

What camera are you using to photograph the art?

[edbayani]

Try two flash heads at 45 deg angle measure with a flash meter or if you are using continuous light, place then equal distance left and right at 45 deg angles. you can see if they cause glare, change the angle. if you have a gray scale, you can put it beside the painting which can be easily cropped. the grayscale helps in correcting color shifts.

[archersdad]

Wetcanvas has a nice tutorial on photographing flat art here: Rick_Lee: How to Photograph Flat Art (1 of 7)